900: Recently inherited Volvo 940 SE

[GreenBrick]

I had a water leak, on my 940, where it had rusted through where the throttle cable came through the bulkhead, that took me ages to find. May also be related to the sticking throttle, you never know, after tipping water down the windscreen and over the scuttle panel, follow the throttle cable with your fingers on the inside and see if it is wet.

I fixed it with fibreglass and resin.

View under the bonnet, on driver's side, after cutting back the rust...

[Prufrock]

Originally Posted by ApacheTech

The Rover isn't a turbo. It's a Rover 75 Tourer Club SE. 1.8 V6 (Petrol). Both cars have small issues that I live with, and are both otherwise in pretty good condition.

The 1.8 is a four cylinder, the V6 came in 2.0 and 2.5 capacities, only you can judge the condition of course. The only issue with the 1.8 is the water capacity* which can undermine the head gasket - cheap and easy fix, if it hasn't been done it will fail.

Jon.

*engine doesn't have a large water capacity.

[ApacheTech]

You're right. Doesn't say v6 on it at all.I had the head gasket changed in April 2016. I had to nurse it back from Anglesey to Cheshire, and it blew about two miles from home.

[ApacheTech]

Originally Posted by GreenBrick

I had a water leak, on my 940, where it had rusted through where the throttle cable came through the bulkhead, that took me ages to find. May also be related to the sticking throttle, you never know, after tipping water down the windscreen and over the scuttle panel, follow the throttle cable with your fingers on the inside and see if it is wet.

I fixed it with fibreglass and resin.

View under the bonnet, on driver's side, after cutting back the rust...

I think that may be it. Thank you. There is a large rust hole in the bulkhead. It's not right next to the throttle cable, but pretty close by. I've tried to get a picture of it, but it's in a really awkward place. I'll take it back to the garage on Monday. I've also bought a car cover from eBay, incase it's gonna take a while to fix.

[ApacheTech]

Here are the two cars...

[Sotosound]

Whenever I’ve bought a car with my head I’ve ended up selling it quite quickly and at a loss.

In the end, I think that your heart has caused you to get onto this forum. If your heart was 100% for the Rover then this thread wouldn’t exist. Ditto the Volvo.

Having owned a Rover 75, I can say that it was a very good car but the slow steering, poor stereo and (for me) less-than-ideal ergonomics led me to sell mine quite quickly.

The Volvo is a different beast. You’ll probably not find a more comfortable car, but it is noisy and slow and probably handles less tidily than the Rover.

Sheesh. Sell them both and buy a P1 Volvo V70 2.5 10-valve automatic. That’s a car that I miss. I sold my 1998 V70 and (with my head) bought a 2007 Skoda Octavia that lasted just a few months before it had to go. The V70 is still going, by the way, so I’m told.

I’m now on my third V70. 😊

[ApacheTech]

Originally Posted by Sotosound

Whenever I’ve bought a car with my head I’ve ended up selling it quite quickly and at a loss.

In the end, I think that your heart has caused you to get onto this forum. If your heart was 100% for the Rover then this thread wouldn’t exist. Ditto the Volvo.

Having owned a Rover 75, I can say that it was a very good car but the slow steering, poor stereo and (for me) less-than-ideal ergonomics led me to sell mine quite quickly.

The Volvo is a different beast. You’ll probably not find a more comfortable car, but it is noisy and slow and probably handles less tidily than the Rover.

Sheesh. Sell them both and buy a P1 Volvo V70 2.5 10-valve automatic. That’s a car that I miss. I sold my 1998 V70 and (with my head) bought a 2007 Skoda Octavia that lasted just a few months before it had to go. The V70 is still going, by the way, so I’m told.

I’m now on my third V70. 😊

I'm going to phone my mechanic on Monday, and tell him I've probably found the problem to both issues. If patching the rust holes fixes the water and accelerator issues, I'll keep the Volvo. If it doesn't, I'll need to get rid of it. The accelerator has been an issue for a number of years, which means that the water issue has been as well. The underside of the carpet has spores on it. It'll have to be fumigated, and I wouldn't be happy to keep it with stagnent water in it. It's not nice to have to clean the mould and mildew off the seats, steering wheel, gear stick, and seat belts before you get into the car after a couple of weeks standing.

The Rover currently has seven advisories on its MOT.

https://www.regit.cars/car/bx02ocu

Advisory notice item(s):
Nearside Front Brake pipe slightly corroded (3.6.B.2c)
Offside Front Brake pipe slightly corroded (3.6.B.2c)
Nearside Front Anti-roll bar linkage ball joint dust cover damaged, but preventing the ingress of dirt (2.4.G.2)
Offside Front Anti-roll bar linkage ball joint dust cover damaged, but preventing the ingress of dirt (2.4.G.2)
Offside Rear coil spring corroded (2.4.C.1b)
Nearside Front Upper Suspension arm corroded but not seriously weakened (2.4.G.1)
Offside Rear Upper Suspension arm corroded but not seriously weakened (2.4.G.1)

Also, the adjustable steering column doesn't lock in place, there's a strange rattling/vibrating from the dashboard/door (haven't been able to pin it down), and despite having the exhaust changed after it rusted through, and fell onto the road in Stoke on Trent last year, there is still a rattle in that, like it's loose. Especially when rising through the biting point at very low revs. It seems to shudder.

In all, I'm worried that trying to fix the Rover to a point I'm happy with will be more than fixing the Volvo, so long as this hole is the only problem. I love the Volvo for its turning circle, its smooth suspension, and the ride height compared to the Rover. I'm leaning more and more towards it now, as the sensible choice.

[360beast]

If it has been leaking for years then take up the carpets and check the floor isn't rotten underneath.

[DAN AT ADRIAN FLUX]

Hi,
If you need any help with insurance at all then please feel free to drop me a line.
Regards,
Dan.

[Cookeh]

Originally Posted by DAN AT ADRIAN FLUX

Hi,
If you need any help with insurance at all then please feel free to drop me a line.
Regards,
Dan.

Do you guys do classic insurance that covers lots of miles? I do ~16k a year, with a 95 850 T5, can never find a classic policy that allows more than 6k miles!

Originally Posted by ApacheTech

The underside of the carpet has spores on it. It'll have to be fumigated, and I wouldn't be happy to keep it with stagnent water in it. It's not nice to have to clean the mould and mildew off the seats, steering wheel, gear stick, and seat belts before you get into the car after a couple of weeks standing.

Take the carpet out (really not too hard, may require some trim to be removed but that will give you a chance to clean those up too, refreshing the whole car!) and dry the floor thoroughly. You can then treat the carpet outside the car with some mould/mildew remover, carpet shampoo and a wet dry that (rent a RugDoctor if you don't have one). This will give you near perfect results that will make sure it doesn't resurface.